Angola's finance minister fired amid economic slump

Angola’s Finance Minister was fired on Monday by President Jose Eduardo dos Santos following a cabinet reshuffle . This comes after Angola’s government broke off talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in July, over a bailout plan.

Under his tenure, Manuel presided over an economic slump that has seen Africa’s biggest oil producer battered by the plunge in oil prices since mid -2014.

He was appointed in 2013, and his term was due to run until 2017. He was replaced by Augusto Archer de Sousa Hose, popularly known as Archer Mangueira, who headed the Capital Markets Commission.

55 year old Mangueira is a familiar face to foreign investors and had recently been brought on to the central committee of the ruling MPLA party.

Dos Santos also replaced his Chief of Staff Edeltrudes da Costa with Manuel da Cruz Neto. He also dismissed Afonso Pedro Canga as the Agriculture minister and appointed Marcos Alexandre Nhunga to the post.